


Buggy Bombs

by Foilfreak



Series: A Family in all but Heritage: Why the Blood of the Covenent runs thicker than the Water of the Womb [5]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Competent!Buggy, Crocus has many regrets, Gen, Roger is very concerned, Shanks is having a great time, buggy learns how to make bombs, good dad Roger, good dad!Roger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-11 08:21:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20543027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Foilfreak/pseuds/Foilfreak
Summary: Buggy asks a question, Crocus answers it, and Roger gets mad because now Buggy knows how to make bombs and he’s setting them off by the ship and Shanks is egging him on and he’s not wearing any protecting gear and Crocus really should have seen this coming from the beginning.





	1. Light the Fuse

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, and welcome to my new trainwreck of a short story. For those of you who don't know me, I go by Foilfreak here on the inter webs, and I am very well known for writing some of the most self-indulgent fanfiction the internet has ever had the misfortune of reading. Today’s catastrophe is based on a conversation that Dragowolf and I had at some point in the past, in fact, most of the fics I have planned for this AU will be based on a conversation that I had with Dragowolf at some point in the past, so at this point you could consider them my co-author, since this AU would not be quite as big as it is without their help and enabling. Anyways, thanks for clicking on my story and I hope you all enjoy the newest installment in my trip down self-indulgent lane!

It’s no secret that people who live the way of the pirate tend to fall outside the categories of what many would consider to be ‘normal’ or ‘ordinary’. This isn’t anything bad necessarily, and so long as you find a ragtag group of misfits like yourself to travel around with, you’ll hardly ever feel out of the ordinary or see anything surprising or disconcerting. In all the time the Roger pirates have been sailing together, this fact was the one constant that held strong and true despite all the danger and uncertainty that generally went along with their hectic way of life sailing along the Grand Line.

But then one day Buggy started making bombs, and any semblance of normalcy that the Roger pirates had went careening overboard into the depths of the deep blue sea.

Now to be fair, bombs weren’t a particularly uncommon type of weapon to happen upon in the Grand Line. In fact, bombs were probably one of the most common weapons used by marines and pirates alike, behind knives and guns of course, and depending on the type of bomb you have and how you use it, they can be an invaluable tool in one’s arsenal. But when your captain’s 7 year old starts setting off highly dangerous, highly lethal explosives no more than 20ft from the ship you need to remain on top of the water, rather than sinking to the bottom of it, there is definitely some cause for concern, and hopefully, intervention.

You see, it all started on a seemingly ordinary, uneventful day. The Oro Jackson was sailing along at a decent pace toward its next destination, and the crew were taking advantage of the nice weather and the lack of enemies nearby to catch up on some relaxation, or, in Crocus’ case, some much needed work.

The doctor in question was spending his day productively making various ointments, antidotes, and vaccines ahead of time, so that he could stock up his medical cabinets and be prepared for whatever danger or idiocy their hairbrained captain threw them all into next. Crocus was feeling rather proud of himself, seeing the large quantity of medicines he had been able to craft in the span of only a couple of hours, and was about to tidy up his medbay and give himself the rest of the day off, when the door to the medbay opened slightly, and Buggy peeked his head in.

“Crocus” the small boy called, his gaze shifting around the room in search for the ship’s doctor.

“Yes Buggy, what is it?” Crocus responds, pulling the nylon gloves he had been wearing off and tossing them into the nearby trash can, before turning to address his student. “How are you getting along with the homework I assigned you earlier? I know the topics we’re working on right now are a bit advanced, so do you need any help?”

Buggy shakes his head. “No, I don’t need any help on the homework. It’s tough, but I’m working through it.”

“Good, I’m glad to hear that” Crocus grins, happy to hear that Buggy was continuing to excel in his academics despite the difficult subjects they were getting into. After spending years surrounded by meatheads who think with their biceps rather than their brains, it's nice to finally have another member of the crew who values education and intellectual thinking over brute strength. Crocus would make a scholar out of Buggy if it was the last thing he did.

“I don’t need any help with the homework, but I do have a question for you” Buggy continues, staring up at the doctor with those big, curious eyes of his.

Crocus chuckles. “Alright then, what is your question?”

“How do you make a bomb?”

“Ah, a bomb, now that’s a very interesting question and the answer is actually quite… wait what?” Crocus asks rather dumbly, his pensive gaze immediately shifting to confusion and disbelief as he looks down at Buggy, unsure of whether he’d heard the boy correctly.

“A bomb. How do you make one?” Buggy clarifies, as though he were asking something simple and mental, rather than how one would construct a dangerous weapon of mass destruction.

Crocus states at Buggy in utter confusion for a moment, unsure of how to respond to the unusual question.

“Well… I… uh…” Crocus stammers. 

Buggy merely blinks at him, waiting for a response of some kind.

“What… why do you want to know?” The doctor asks cautiously, trying to figure out what Buggy’s intentions are.

“Well, in chemistry we’re learning about how to balance chemical equations” Buggy begins.

“Right, that’s correct” Crocus affirms.

“And in this section we learned that there are 4 different types of chemical reactions.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“And one of those chemical reactions is combustion, right?”

“Yes?”

“Well, when I was reading over the textbook chapter earlier today, it said that combustion is an exothermic redox reaction that takes place between an oxidant and a fuel, that results in the release of a gaseous substance, the release of energy in the form of heat, and depending on how much energy is released, light can be produced from the reaction too, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. So what does this have to do with bombs?” Crocus asks curiously.

“Well, after reading through the passage on combustion reactions and seeing the examples they gave, I realized that combustion reactions are basically just explosions. Two chemical substances coming together and the resulting reaction between them produces some kind of gas that is released into the air, as well as lots of energy, heat, and light. The textbook explained how these reactions can occur in situations like lighting a campfire, but it never said anything about the types of combustion reactions that occur when a bomb explodes, so I was wondering how bombs were made because I want to know how the construction of it prevents it from going off accidentally or not going off at all” Buggy elaborates, rattling off the information he learned as though he were an expert. 

Crocus nods his head in understanding, taking a moment to figure out how he wants to answer this.

“Well Buggy, I must admit, your question has caught me off guard a bit, and to be perfectly honest… I’m not entirely sure how to answer it. I am a doctor, not a bomb technician, so that line of chemistry is outside my realm of expertise, unfortunately” Crocus says.

Buggy’s expression immediately drops, his lips forming into a disappointed pout at the news that Crocus couldn’t answer his question. Of all the men on board the Oro Jackson, Crocus was usually the one that Buggy could go to with moderate certainty that the doctor would have an answer to his never ending stream of questions. This was unfortunately one of the few instances where even Crocus, in all his knowledge and wisdom, was at a total loss for how to answer the young boy’s question.

”But” Crocus adds “perhaps there’s someone on board who could.”

Buggy stares at the doctor with a mildly confused look on his face, before a look of understanding flashes over his features. “Oh” is all he says, turning around and exiting the room. Crocus follows the young boy and makes his way further below deck, heading to the one person who might be able to answer his question.

“KEEEEEEENAAAAAAAIIII” Buggy yells as he bursts into the workshop. A man with olive-toned skin, shaggy grey hair, and rather rough looking features downs the remainder of the bottle of whiskey he had in his hands, tossing it into the nearest trash can before turning to regard the blue haired boy who’d just entered his domain. Kenai, the Roger Pirate’s resident pyromaniac, was the type of man who enjoyed drinking his liquor in the way that most people enjoyed breathing air, meaning that he did so unconsciously and out of habit, but if he were to stop doing so for any length of time, he’d probably die from withdrawal. 

“What’dya wan’” the man, Kenai, slurs drunkenly, nodding in vague acknowledgement of Crocus, who hangs back by the door.

Buggy pays Kenai’s drunkenness little mind or care as he approaches the man. “How do you make a bomb?” The boy asks simply.

A moment of silence passes as the question registers and processes through Kenai’s inebriated mind. A look of confusion slowly settles on the older man’s face.

“The fuck you wanna know that for?” Kenai asks, fixing the boy with a look of suspicion.

“We’re learning about chemical reactions” Crocus says, abandoning his spot by the door to step further into the room. “Buggy was wondering how combustion reactions were stabilized and contained within bombs. Since you’re the ships resident bomb expert, I figured you’d be better able to explain how that works.”

“Oh, I see. Well why didn’t you say so in the first place?” Kenai says, a cocky smile spreading across his face and his chest puffs out pridefully from the compliment.

“Tell me tell me tell me” Buggy chants, bounding up and down excitedly.

Kenai laughs. “Well alright then, come with me young padawan, and I will show you the glory that is COMBUSTION!” Buggy shrieks in excitement as Kenai hauls himself out of the chair he was sitting in, reaching back and grabbing the blue haired boy and throwing him over him over his shoulder, before finally heading into the workshop where Kenai does his explosive work.

Crocus smiles at the display before turning and exiting the room, pleased that he was able to facilitate a supplemental lesson for Buggy that would help him better understand the material he was learning. 

It wasn’t often that Crocus was able to put together lessons that took a more hands-on approach to learning. Being on a pirate ship with limited space for supplies that weren’t absolutely necessary to their everyday living and survival wasn’t the most conducive environment for teaching two children who learned in very different ways and at very different speeds, but there were certain days where the stars seemed to line up perfectly, and Crocus was able to pass Shanks or Buggy, off to another member of the crew for a more active learning experience. Shanks definitely preferred these kinds of lessons to the typical textbook and lecture style lessons that Crocus was often limited to giving, and Buggy was so flexible when it came to how he learned that at this point, Crocus wouldn’t be surprised if the boy could absorb information through osmosis.

As Crocus slowly but surely meandered his way down the hall, he reveled in the idea of what he could do with the rest of his day off after he finished cleaning up the medbay, completely oblivious to the absolute mayhem that he had unintentionally set in motion.


	2. Let It Blow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter. Enjoy!

Over a week had passed since Crocus had handed Buggy over to Kenai for a supplementary lesson on combustion, and in the time between that day and the present time, Crocus thought very little of the repercussions that could come from teaching Buggy about the intricacies of bomb construction. Unfortunately for him, that careless decision would come back to bite him, as well as the rest of the Roger pirates, right in the ass, when the first explosion went off, throwing the Oro Jackson into complete and utter chaos.

For the first few minutes following the explosion, men were running around frantically, grabbing weapons, pulling at the rigging and sails, and readying themselves for a fight against their unknown assailant. 

Roger comes bursting onto the main deck, sword in one hand and loaded gun in the other. “Are we under attack?” The raven haired man asks.

“We don’t know” Rayleigh replies hastily, shouting orders to some of the men. “The explosion went off in the water, so the ship wasn’t damaged, but we can’t see any enemy ships anywhere, so it might have been an underwater attack that went off before it could hit us.”

Roger grinds his teeth in frustration, looking out onto the open water in an attempt to locate whatever had attempted to attack them. The sound of childish laughter caught his attention though. Following the sound of the laughter, Roger makes his way toward the back of the ship, where Shanks and Buggy were busy laughing and running around gleefully, totally oblivious to the danger that they were in. Just as Roger is about to yell at the two boys to knock it off and get serious, Shanks speaks up.

“Buggy that was AWESOME!!!” The young redhead yells in excitement, jumping up and down around his smaller companion. Buggy also looks uncharacteristically happy given the current situation, since the blue-haired boy was usually the first one to panic whenever the ship was under attack, and yet right now he looks perfectly calm.

“Should I set off the other one?” Buggy asks, and his question is met with a flurried blur of excited screaming and flapping of limbs from Shanks. 

“DO IT, DO IT, DO IT, DO IT!!!!” The redhead yells encouragingly.

Buggy moves to the back railing of the ship, climbing to sit on it before taking something out of his pocket, a small circular object made of metal and plastic with a piece of string sticking out of the top. Buggy takes a lighter out of his back pocket and flicks it to life, carefully lighting the string. Roger’s heart stops beating when he finally realizes what the object in Buggy’s hand is. 

Sprinting forward at full speed, Roger snatches the now lit bomb out of Buggy’s hands, and with all the strength he can muster, the raven haired man chucks it as far as possible, before pulling both boys into his arms, yanking them away from the ship’s railing, and throwing them all to the ground just in time for the bomb to go off, using his body to shield the boys from the impact and residual shockwaves. The Oro Jackson teeters back and forth on top of the water, though not quite as violently as the first time. A moment of tense silence passes before Roger finally lessens his grip on Shanks and Buggy, lifting his head up to assess his surroundings, and any damage that may or may not have taken place from the explosion. 

“Aw man. That one wasn’t as big as the first one” Shanks commented, the disappointment written plainly across his face. Buggy says nothing, simply staring at the spot where the explosion had just gone off, a thoughtful look on his face. Roger stares at both his boys with a mixture of confusion and disbelief as to what the actual fuck just happened and more importantly, WHY THE FUCK DID BUGGY HAVE A BOMB??????

“Maybe you didn’t add enough gun powder?” Shanks asks Buggy, who shakes his head.

“No that's not it, I made it the exact same way as the first one. We didn’t feel the explosion as much as the first one because it went off way farther from the ship” Buggy explains simply.

Shanks turns to Roger, pouting angrily. “Dad, you messed up the explosion ‘cuz you threw it too far” the redhead berates, pounding his fist against Roger’s shoulder. The raven haired man barely feels the blows though, his mind too busy trying to process what he had just heard.

Gunpowder? Explosion? Made? Buggy made that bomb? BUGGY KNOWS HOW TO MAKE BOMBS?

Millions of questions flew around in Roger’s head, but he doubted he was going to get any straight answers from either Shanks or Buggy, so perhaps it was time to go check in with the rest of the crew and see if they knew what the flying fuck was going on. 

Keeping his hold on both boys, Roger makes his way back toward the main deck, where the rest of his crew were still in a flurried panic, trying to figure out where their unknown attacker was. Adjusting his hold on Shanks, Roger brings two fingers to his lips before blowing out an ear piercing whistle, which halts the Roger pirates in their tracks. All the men turn to face their captain.

“Chill out boys, I found our mystery attackers” Roger says, motioning to Shanks and Buggy, both of whom look uncharacteristically innocent given what they were just doing. 

The other men exchange confused glances. “What do you mean?” Someone asks slowly.

“Exactly what I said” Roger replies, setting both boys back down. “I just found Shanks and Buggy at the back of the ship dropping bombs into the water. That’s what those explosions earlier were from.”

A few of the crew nod their heads in tentative understanding, while others still look just as confused as they were before.

“Now that that’s been cleared up, another, slightly more important question comes up that I think we need to answer, and that question is, WHO THE HELL TAUGHT MY 7-YEAR-OLD HOW TO MAKE A  **FUCKING BOMB** ?” Roger roars, anger rolling off him in waves as he regards his men. Shanks and Buggy don’t even flinch at their father’s sudden yelling, however the same could not be said for the rest of the Roger pirates, who all cower in fear, some even ducking behind barrels or other people to shield themselves from his wrath.

Crocus casts a glare toward Kenai, whose skin has gone a ghostly pale color. “I thought you said you taught him how to make firecrackers?” Crocus whispers harshly in the bomb technician’s ear.

“I did” Kenai replies defensively.

“Then why the hell can he make actual bombs now?”

“How the hell should I know?”

A moment of silence passes as Roger scans the group of men in front of him. “So nobody taught him how to do it?” The raven haired man asks, the question clearly rhetorical in nature.

Another moment of silence passes.

“Nobody at all?” Roger continues.

More silence.

“Alright then, if nobody wants to admit to it, why don’t you tell us who taught you how to make that bomb, Buggy” Roger says, looking down at the blue haired boy standing in front of him. Kenai pales even more as Buggy’s gaze immediately snaps to him.

“Kenai did” Buggy says simply.

“Did he now?” Roger says, casting a menacing glare at Kenai, who looks about 2 seconds away from passing out.

“Ya, he taught me how to make firecrackers. I wanted to know how combustion works so I went and asked Crocus, but he didn’t know so he told me to go ask Kenai because he would know.” 

“Really?” Roger asks, his glare moving on to Crocus, who’s mouth practically drops to the floor over the face that Buggy had just thrown him under the bus.

“Yup. And using what Kenai taught me about firecrackers, I used some of the same materials and chemicals from his workshop to make a real bomb” Buggy continues, 

“You should have seen it, Dad. The second one wasn’t really good ‘cuz you threw it too far, but the first one Buggy set off was super big and cool! It was so powerful that it threw me against the wall and almost knocked Buggy into the water” Shanks added on, oblivious to how much worse he was making this situation for Crocus and Kenai, who Roger was very much not happy with right now as it was.

If looks could kill, Crocus and Kenai would be very dead right now. 

Thankfully for them, strangling Crocus and Kenai was the least of Roger’s concerns at the moment as he dismissed his men, asking to speak with the doctor and bomb technician later, before pulling Buggy to the side.

“Did I do something bad?” Buggy asks, sensing the tension in the air. Roger’s expression softens slightly as he gets down on one knee to be at eye-level with Buggy.

“No Bug, you didn’t do anything bad, but you did do something very very dangerous. Something that put yourself, and everyone else on board in a lot of danger” Roger explains.

Buggy’s gaze drops shamefully to the floor, his lips scrunched up into a pout. “I didn’t mean to” he says quietly.

“I know you didn’t, but that doesn’t make what you were doing any less serious. Thankfully nothing happened this time, but what would have happened if the ship got damaged from the explosion, or worse, you or Shanks had been hurt? I can replace the side of a ship, but I can't replace my boys” Roger says. Buggy avoids eye-contact, his bottom lip beginning to tremble slightly.

“I’m sorry” Buggy says, and Roger can’t help but cave a little at the sight of those big watery green eyes of his.

“I know” Roger says softly, reaching forward to lift the small boy into his arms, Buggy immediately burying his nose into the raven haired man’s neck as Roger hugged him.

Roger hated punishing the boys over things they didn’t know any better about. Sure they knew that bombs were dangerous and that they shouldn’t be messed with, but Roger couldn’t exactly fault Buggy for thinking that learning about bombs was the same as being given permission to build and use them. Ultimately however, he knew that action would have to be taken to make sure that both Buggy and Shanks understood that gravity of the situation, and the fact that they were still far too young to be messing with those sorts of things.

Buggy mumbling something into Roger’s shoulder catches the raven haired man’s attention.

“What’s that, bud?” Roger asks, peeling the boy from his shoulder and setting him on his knee. Buggy continues to avoid eye-contact but repeats what he said.

“I just wanted to be able to fight” he says quietly.

Roger raises a questioning eyebrow. “Fight what?”

“Anything” Buggy shouts, throwing his hands into the air in exasperation. “I want to be able to fight anything just like everybody else.”

“What do you mean?” Roger asks, still not getting what Buggy was saying.

“I’m not big and strong like you and Rayleigh, I’m not good with swords or axes like Shanks and Scopper, and I’m not even good with harpoons like Crocus. Whenever enemy ships come around, I can't fight because I’m too puny and weak to fight with anything, and the only things I’m good at are running away and hiding” Buggy says, his frustration written across his face.

“Ok, so what does this have to do with bombs?” Roger asks. And Buggy takes a moment to think before answering.

“Crocus says that I've got a big brain, but I can't do anything with a big brain if I’m too weak to fight like everyone else, so I thought… I thought maybe I could put my big brain to good use, and start making weapons. Bombs and guns and knives and all sorts of stuff that I could fight with instead, that rely on my speed more than my strength, and maybe I could even build weapons for some of you guys. That’s why I asked Crocus and Kenai to teach me, so that I could start making my own bombs and using them to keep enemies away in fights” Buggy explains.

Roger stares at Buggy for a moment, processing everything the young boy just told him.

“I see” Roger begins, “and you didn’t think to consult someone else on this decision before-hand?”

Again, Buggy’s gaze drops shamefully. “I knew none of you wouldn’t let me do it, so I went behind your back.”

“Buggy” Roger sighs, giving the boy a pointed look.

“Oh, so you’ll train Shanks on how to use swords and haki but when I try to find my own way to fight so that I can protect my nakama too, its a problem?” Buggy questions harshly, fixing Roger with an angry look. Roger is taken aback by the question, and for several minutes attempts to come up with a response to it, but is unable to.

Of course this is a problem, Roger just caught Buggy carelessly tossing bombs off the side of the ship, what kind of a question is that? Then again, Buggy did have a point. Due to his small size and lack of raw physical strength, Roger had been hesitant to actually train the smaller boy in the same way he trained Shanks, who was far more physically resilient. Roger had always done his best to make sure that he divided his free time evenly between both boys, but he’d never applied the same rule to training, often passing Buggy off to Crocus or Rayleigh to give him some homework to do while Roger was busy training Shanks. Perhaps Roger had been unknowingly holding Buggy back in his attempts to protect the boy, and in doing so, he’d forced Buggy to look for another way to fight alongside his nakama using the skills that he was good at. 

“Buggy” Roger begins. “This isn't a matter of you trying to find ways to compensate for your lack of fighting ability, this is a matter of you blatantly putting yourself, and others, at risk with a weapon that you don’t really know how to use.”

“But I could learn how to use it. If you let me” Buggy interjects, and Roger is one again at a loss for words.

Let him? Let him do what? Fool around with explosive and risk blowing himself up? Unbelievable, that was absolutely out of the question. But then… what else was Buggy supposed to do? Roger still wanted to wait until he was a little bigger before starting his training, Rayleigh didn’t have the time to work with him personally at the moment, and nobody else on the ship would go easy enough on him, so the way things were now, Buggy was stuck without anyone willing or available to train him, save for maybe Wilson, who would occasionally show Buggy how to handle and throw knives, but other than that, the kid was shit out of luck. If that was the case, then maybe…

Roger sighs, not liking the way this conversation was going, but ultimately knowing that, to a certain degree, Buggy was right. He was a pirate just like everyone else on the crew, and although he didn’t have the same aptitude for fighting that Shanks had, that didn’t mean that Roger could prevent Buggy from using his strengths to find alternative ways to fight, even if those strengths involved bombs and dangerous chemicals. 

Roger sighs again, really not liking what he was about to say but seeing no other resolution to this problem. “Alright Buggy, tell you what” Roger begins, catching the blue haired boy off guard.

“I’ll allow you to continue with your… whatever the hell it was you were doing, BUT, you have to run everything you do by me, so that I at least know what you’re doing in the event anything happens to explode, and everything you do has to be done under the supervision of a responsible adult-”

“Define responsible” Buggy cuts in sarcastically, which Roger would have found rather funny if he weren’t in the middle of scolding/negotiating with him.

“Responsible as in they’ll stop you from doing something incredibly stupid and getting yourself killed” Roger responds dryly.

“No fair, that only leaves Crocus, and he doesn’t even know how to make bombs” Buggy whines.

“Too bad, those are my rules, take it or leave it.”

Buggy pouts indignantly but makes no moves to argue further. He groans.

“Fine” Buggy relents “I’ll do it. I don’t like it, but I’ll do it.”

“That’s all I can ask for” Roger chuckles, giving Buggy one more gentle squeeze before setting the boy back down and releasing him to go about the rest of his day.

Now, where did Kenai and Crocus go? 

Roger has a bone to pick with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay chapter 2! Roger finds out that Buggy can make bombs and so he does what any good father does and immediately blames everyone BUT the kid tossing bombs into the water. Roger is good at a lot of things, but properly punishing his children when they misbehave or do things they shouldn’t do is not one of them. Oh well, at least he showed up before anything bad could happen. Thanks so much for reading, let me know what you think of this chapter, leave a comment, kudos, and I hope to see you all soon for chapter 3. Bye!!! <333


	3. And Watch it Light Up the Night Sky

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter. Enjoy!

“DAD!” A voice yells from somewhere on the Oro Jackson, catching the attention of the only person on board who is ever referred to by that title.

Roger lifts his head from the newspaper he was reading just in time for Buggy to come bursting through the door and onto the main deck of the ship, sprinting full speed toward Roger.

“Dad Dad Dad Dad” Buggy chants as he comes to a halt in front of the larger man. 

“What what what what” Roger chants back, setting his newspaper down to give his full attention to his son, who, he now notices, is absolutely covered in grime and motor oil. 

Roger chuckles. “You know, Bug, the last time I checked, the motor grease is supposed to go on the machine, not your face” he says, licking his thumb and rubbing it against the boy’s black stained cheek. It helps a little bit, but not much.

“Ew, Dad that’s gross. Knock it off or I’m not gonna show you what I made” Buggy whines, leaning away from the saliva coated digit that’s trying to make its way toward his other cheek. Roger relents, but makes a mental note to grab a washcloth from the bathroom later so that he can give Buggy’s face a much needed scrubbing.

“Alright I’m done. So, what did you want to show me?” Roger asks, leaning back against the ship’s railing and giving the blue haired boy his undivided attention. A wide smile spreads across Buggy’s face as he moves to reveal his latest project.

In the 6 months since Roger had allowed Buggy to pursue an “alternative” form of training, under the guidance and tutelage of various crew members such as Crocus and Kenai, Buggy had managed to become quite the little inventor. His background knowledge in chemistry and physics made constructing simple chemical solutions and bombs practically a no brainer, and the more the boy continued to learn, the more he was able to understand and apply outside of his lessons. As time passed, Buggy began branching out and asking other members of the crew, like Vincent, the armorer, or Sokka, the shipwright, to teach him in the ways of their craft, which the men had shockingly agreed to. 

Not long after that, Buggy began using what he had learned to invent and build all sorts of different weapons and gadgets of his own design, everything from bombs to guns to grappling hooks, and he was constantly working on a project of some kind. It wasn’t until this point that the other members of the crew actual began to take interest in what Buggy had been spending the majority of his time doing, but after seeing all the incredible things the boy had created, they began requesting weapons of their own to be made, and before long, Buggy’s personal inventions could be found all over the Oro Jackson, and the Roger pirates were more than happy to brag about where, or rather who, they got their cool new weapons from. Roger himself was especially guilty of this that point, but if your son made you a gun that could auto-reload up to 3 rounds, fire exploding bullets, and had a range of over 100ft, you’d probably brag about him to everyone within a 2 mile radius too.

“Tada!” Buggy sang as he unveiled a small ovular shaped object made out of, what appeared to be, a metal of some kind, that had been molded to have lots of bumps and divots all along the outside. At the top of the object was a cylindrical piece of metal with a curved hook sticking out of one of the sides that extended all the way down to the bottom end of the object. A lumpy, blue letter “B” had been painted onto the outside.

“Ooooooohhh” Roger marveled, taking the object and carefully turning it over in his hand. “Another bomb I assume?”

“Yup, but this isn’t just any old bomb you’ll find lying around. This is by far the most powerful and deadly weapon you’ll ever come across” Buggy says proudly, puffing out his chest and placing his hands on his hips, a huge grin on his face.

“Oh? And how is that?” Roger asks, slightly curious as to what Buggy was talking about.

“Well, I’ve been playing around with a bunch of chemicals I stole from Crocus and Kenai to see if I could make a bomb that was stronger than a bomb of this size would normally be, and I figured out a few different ways to achieve this. First of all, I had to figure out a different chemical solution to put inside the bomb, still using some of the same ratios as the other bombs I've made, but instead replacing standard gunpowder with a much more highly combustible element. Second, the bumps and ridges along the outside of the bomb make it so that when the bomb goes off, the outer shell immediately breaks apart along the lines in between the bumps, so that less energy has to go into breaking through the outer shell, and more energy can go into blowing everything around it to smithereens. The bumps, when broken apart by the explosion, also act as bullets that fire out in all directions when the bomb goes off, making it even more deadly. Lastly, I wanted to come up with a better way of setting off the explosion, so I came up with the device on the top, which is designed to prevent the bomb from going off unless the pin on the top is pulled off, and the timer won’t start until you let go of the metal handle on the side. You can even put the pin back in if necessary. Much safer than the ones you have to light with a fuse… well, for the person throwing it at least” Buggy explains, ever excited about an opportunity to talk about his latest gadget.

Roger nods his head, thoroughly impressed with the boy’s work. “Wow Buggy, I must admit, those are pretty damn cool.”

Buggy practically beams at the praise. 

“So what’s the “B” on the side for? Is it your special signature or something?” Roger asks curiously.

Buggy looks at his father in confusion for a moment, before turning the bomb to survey the painted letter on the outside of the bomb. 

“No, it's not my signature or anything. It stands for Benzvalene, the compound I used to make the bomb. I was playing around with a variety of different chemicals and I wanted to make sure that I didn’t get them confused, so I painted the outside of the bombshells with a letter or symbol corresponding with the compound that was supposed to go in it so I didn’t accidentally make a mistake and cross contaminate” the boy explains.

Roger laughs. “I see, well I suppose that makes a bit more sense. I guess I just assumed that the “B” stood for your name, and that maybe you’d named them Buggy Bombs or something like that.”

“Buggy Bombs? That’s such a lame name. There’s no way I’d ever name any of my inventions after myself, that’s just stupid and egotistical” Buggy says, cringing at the thought.

Roger laughs again.

“Hey, I’m gonna go test this out on the beach, wanna come see?” Buggy asks, his attitude quickly changing as he remembers the main reason why he came out here.

“Sure, why not” Roger says with a shrug of his shoulders, chuckling when Buggy jumps up and down excitedly. Roger remains where he is for a moment as he watches Buggy beam and trots over to the door to below deck.

“SHANKS! IM GETTING READY TO TEST OUT THE BOMB, SO HURRY UP AND GET OUT HERE OR ELSE YOU’RE GONNA MISS IT. IM NOT WAITING ALL DAY FOR YOU.” Buggy yells from the threshold of the door, his voice echoing down the halls for a short moment after Buggy has left, walking to the gangplank and making his way down onto the beach.

Just as Roger is about to move from his place against the railing of the ship and join Buggy down on the beach, the sound of footsteps coming from below deck, and barely a moment later, Shanks comes racing out from below deck, moving at such a fast pace that he’s barely able to keep his balance, nearly face planting onto the hardwood floor,

“WAIT FOR ME!” Shanks yells as he hurries his way down the gangplank and onto the beach after his friend. 

Roger breaks out laughing again over how excitable Shanks could be.

A few moments later, Roger is standing next to Shanks, as well as a few other Roger pirates who wanted to see the fruits of Buggy’s labor, on the beach, a fair distance away from the ship. The sun has just gone down, which means that this is the perfect time to set off an explosion.

Roger makes sure to keep a close eye on Buggy, who’s a few meters away from the rest of the group, as the boy prepares himself to set off his new bomb, using the air cannon he made a few months ago to make sure that the bomb is nice and far away from them when it finally goes off.

“Ok, I'm ready to set it off. You guys ready?” Buggy calls over, turning to regard his audience.

Roger gives the boy a thumbs up. “We’re all set over here, Bug.”

“LET IT RIP, BUGGY” Shanks yells excitedly, practically vibrating with excitement as Buggy pulls the pin on the bomb, places it in the air cannon, presses the button, and sprints as fast as his little legs will carry him back toward Roger and the others.

The air cannon fires the bomb into the air and out toward the sea just as Buggy comes to a stop next to Shanks. They all look out onto the horizon where the bomb had disappeared into the darkness of the night for a moment, holding their breaths in anticipation.

1 second passes.

Then 2.

Then 3.

Then 5.

And then… it goes off.

In the blink of an eye the night sky is suddenly lit up completely with a flash of light that spreads out across the horizon, sparks and rays of fire flying out in every direction. The blinding dance of fire and light is followed closely behind by a monstrously catastrophic  **BOOM ** that Roger swears could be heard from halfway across the world, sending out powerful shockwaves that could easily knock you right on your ass if you weren’t prepared for it or, in Shanks and Buggy’s case, aren’t heavy enough to withstand it no matter how hard you try.

Roger keeps a tight grip on both boys, preventing them from being blown away until the explosion finally reaches is conclusion, fading away into the darkness as the last remaining streams of light cascade down from the sky, quickly extinguished when they hit the cold surface of the sea, the sounds from the initial blast still echoing softly in the distance.

A moment of silence passes between the group of men before it’s quickly replaced with excited shouts and yells. Even some of the older men run and jump around in childlike excitement over the incredible display they had just witnessed.

Buggy looks up at Roger with hopeful and expectant eyes, clearly hoping for some kind of praise, which he receives in the form of a proud smile and an affectionate tossle of his short blue locks. Buggy’s eyes practically sparkle with joy and pride.

“Holy shit Buggy that was fucking awesome” Kelly, one of the crew’s gunmen, praises, giving the boy a light shove.

“Ya, no shit kid. Remind me never to never get on your bad side” the navigator, Xavier, adds, gazing out at the spot where the bomb went off with a mixture of wonder and mild terror.

“Man, at this rate you’re gonna be the one teaching me how to make bombs” Kenai teases, leaning his arm against the top of Buggy’s head.

Buggy laughs shyly as Shanks runs over to him, throwing his arms around his smaller friend and knocking them both to the sandy ground. Both boys burst out laughing Shanks keeping a tight grip around Buggy’s stomach as they roll around on the beach.

Roger smiles as the other members of the crew who were there to witness Buggy’s latest feat crowded around the boy, showering him with questions, praise, and requests for other various weapons to be made as well. He might not like the idea of his son putting himself into such dangerous situations by getting himself involved with bombs and explosions and other volatile weapons, but seeing just how happy and proud Buggy was with the things that he was doing, the fact that he was finally able to help and fight alongside his family using the unique set of skills that he had, it made Roger happy that he decided to give Buggy a chance, a chance that he should have given the boy a long time ago, but better late than never I suppose.

Whether he liked it or not, both Shanks and Buggy were growing up, and much faster than he would have liked, I might add. It’s Rogers job as their captain and (more-or-less) adopted father to keep his boys happy, safe, and well taken-care of, but there will come a time when Shanks and Buggy will need to learn how to take care of themselves and fend for their own lives, without his or any of the other crew member’s help. As much as Roger would like to keep the boys tucked and hidden away from all the dangers the world has to offer, he ultimately knows that is neither the right nor fair thing to do, so he has to do everything in his power to make sure that both of them are strong enough to withstand whatever comes their way, even if it means letting them deal with dangerous situations on their own. It wasn’t easy, especially not at first, when every fiber of his being would scream at him to run and get his boys out of harm’s way before it was too late, but he refrained, and slowly but surely, Shanks and Buggy were getting stronger, smarter, faster, and more experienced, and while they both still had a lot to learn, they were getting there, and Roger couldn’t be more proud of how much both his boys have grown and improved since they first arrived on the ship.

There would come a time when Roger would be able to watch Shanks and Buggy fight and train without feeling sick to his stomach and wanting to jump in and pulverize whoever dared lay a finger on either of his boys. Not anytime soon, of course, but sooner or later that time would come, and while Roger felt sad that his boys would one day be all grown up and no longer need him like they do now, he also can’t help but feel a strong sense of pride fill his chest, knowing that one day the world will be able to see just how amazing and capable his boys are.

Roger can’t wait for that day to finally arrive, but for now he’ll settle on enjoying the precious time he has left with the boys while they’re still young and crazy and innocent and need him to take care of them. It’s a pain in the neck sometimes and Roger swears that the boys are going to give him a heart attack one day if they keep their shenanigans up, but he doesn’t mind waiting for a little while longer.

“Dad, hurry up, we’re going back to the ship” Buggy calls from further up the beach, pulling Roger from his deep thoughts as he finally notices that he’s been abandoned.

“Ya, hurry up. Dinner’s ready and we’re hungry” Shanks adds afterwards.

Roger laughs, beginning to make his way toward the boys. “Alright I’m coming.”

“Last one back to the ship is a rotten egg” Roger yells, breaking into a sprint and flying past the boys with a devilish grin on his face.

Both Shanks and Buggy remain rooted to their spot for a moment before snapping out of it and beginning to chase after Roger.

“DAD THAT ISN'T FAIR, YOU DIDN'T EVEN SAY GO!” Shanks yells angrily, trying and failing to keep up with Buggy, who’s slowly but surely pulling ahead of the redhead.

Roger laughs heartily as the boys chase after him, yelling and screaming as they all race back to the ship.

God only knows what challenges they’ll encounter in the future, but with every passing day, Roger grows more and more confident that Shanks and Buggy will be able to handle it, and he couldn’t be more proud of them for that.

Now the only thing left to do was to make sure that he didn’t get caught in the crossfire of one of those Buggy Bombs. Roger might be pretty strong, but even he couldn’t survive a blast as powerful as that, and dying at the hands of a bomb made by his 7 year old is definitely  **NOT ** the way Roger would like to exit the firey shitshow that is his life.

Maybe he should talk to Buggy about the appropriate and inappropriate times to break out his bombs, you know… just in case.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another fic completed, yay!!! Hopefully there wont be as big of a gap between this fic and the next one I have planned, since Ive already written out like the first 2 or 3 chapters for it. This next one is gonna be a little bit darker than the previous ones, is set when Shanks and Buggy are a little older (around 14 I think), and sets up a super cool aspect of this AU, as well as Buggy’s character, that Dragowolf and I have been obsessing over since we first started messaging each other back in like, May or something, so get excited for that because I sure as hell am!!! Don’t worry though, I dont plan on abandoning the super cute and fluffy fics that are set when Shanks and Buggy are little kiddos, but I did want a change of pace regarding the subject matter and tone of the stories I’m writing, and that lead me to start writing the story I plan on posting next. A lot of the stories I’ve written so far for this AU have been super cute and fluffy and has a lot to do with Shanks and Buggy being cute and adorable and innocent little tykes, and Roger being their loving, protective, and constantly worrying father, and Ive loved writing stories like that because they make me happy and based on the comments that some of you leave me, they seem to make you happy as well, but Dragowolf and I have big plans for this AU, and I want to start turning those plans into actual stories, because let me tell you, there’s a lot to this AU that Dragowolf and I have fleshed out over the fast few months, but it doesn’t do anybody much good when they just sit there in our personal chat, and dont actually become the stories they were meant to inspire, so I’m lighting a fire under my ass and taking the first steps toward fleshing this AU out into something a bit more than what you’ve seen of it so far. Im super excited for what I have coming up, and I hope you all are too, so if you’ve been with me since the beginning or are just getting on the bandwagon, I want to thank you all for taking the time to read my shitty fanfics, and letting me do something I love and share it with all of you! I hope to see you all very soon for the next fic. Bye!!!! <3333333


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